Jun 1, 2009

I have been such slacker on updating the blog. I had little notes for the past year but have seemed to have misplaced them (my common theme this year) The kids have grown over the past year in more ways than one. I guess Jason and I continue to grow with them too....

I will try to highlight some of our events from the past year.

March- 09

Karina and Cooper had their faces painted for the first time at a friend's Birthday party. Uncle Mike kept Cooper and Karina for a night so Kirstin and her friend Christine could have a 24 hour spa visit. Uncle Mike pulled all the mattresses down to the den and they "camped out" and watched (and fell in love with) Sponge Bob for the first time. They also loved feeding Uncle Mike's new Coy. On our last night we got a special surprise...Pappa came to spend the night with us at Uncle Mike's house! We always love having company come to our house and March was great in that regard. Grandma and Pops and the Perkins family came to visit.

April-09We had a couple of 'firsts' around here in April....Cooper and daddy went to Tuscaloosa to see the "Blue Angels", Rocky caught his first squirrel and played with it in the yard much to my disliking (even the hose did not deter Rocky), We fly out to OR over Easter to meet Darren Hoff, won our first big prize at The Kid One Charity event we attended...(hearts on Fire Diamond Necklace) and our least favorite first for K & C was their allergy testing. The funniest thing for me that month was the morning I was panicked looking for them all over the house and couldn't find them anywhere (my mind was going thru all the possible scenarios) Needless to say, I found them in the car, in the garage, with the doors closed, watching a movie. Yes....they had figured out how to open the car, turn on the radio/DVD all by themselves!

May 09-

SPRING!!! With the last of cold weather, the mice decided to nest in our garage. Boy was that a month long process. Cooper didn't understand why I would scream anytime a mouse would run by, his response was, "mommy, they are just like the mice on Cinderella". Cooper is going thru a new phase of insisting on wearing his Oregon Duck t-shirt EVERYDAY! (and most days he also wants to wear his Red "Cars" boots too. I am learning to pick and choose those battles. We were excited to be able to go to the zoo without our coats. It continues to be one of Karina and Cooper's favorite outings. I played in my first tennis tournament and was excited that we won 3rd place! Jason has started to travel some to Germany again and that has been a hard adjustment because we all miss him so much when he is traveling! We had a great time with the Gambrell family at the "Beach Club" for Memorial Day week. We decided that the Beach Club was perfect since it was our five yr anniversary.

June-09

We kicked off the summer with Rave's free movie Days. The kids LOVE going to the Theater to see movies and I love that the tickets are Free! Took the kids to see "up" Cooper-forgot he needed to go potty b/c he was into movie(sitting on my lap) had to run to store mid movie to get us both new pants. Glad j was with us!!! Now it's funny... We have started back to the pool. It is amazing how well the kids swim and how much they are like me and could live at the pool. We spend most mornings swimming and then have a picnic lunch at the pool. Some nights we even go back because daddy will meet us there after work. The kids get so excited when Jason gets in the pool with them. We spent a day on Lake Mitchell at our friend's house for a day. It was the kids first outing at a Lake and they loved riding the seadoo and playing. Karina wasn't crazy about what might be swimming around her legs in the water! The not funny thing this month....when Jason and I returned home from our date night, we noticed there was fingernail polish on the rug and couch.....RED.....Cooper had decided to paint his fingernails all by himself (without the babysitter noticing). Enough said on that one.

July-09

We spent the beginning of the month preparing for the MB President's retirement party at our house. It turned out to be a very successful party. We spent a fun 4th at our friends pool and the kids actually enjoyed the fireworks this year. We bought Cooper a Gameboy DS to help with our long plane rides out to Oregon since it was just Karina, Cooper and I making the trip this year (Jason was in Germany). It was amazing how he mastered all the games without even being able to read. The kids had a blast during our two visit out to Grandma and Pops. Their favorite thing this year was riding the ski lift up to Mt. Bachelor and playing in the snow.

Aug-09

Karina had begun to ask tons of questions about her adoption, skin color, and birth mother. She wishes so badly her eyes were blue like daddy's. One day she will realize how beautiful she is with her big brown eyes. We celebrated Cooper's 4th birthday. He wanted a doughnut rather than a cake. Mike came to visit us and of course we didn't want him to go home. We always have so much fun when he comes over. He decided that we should take the kids bowling on this visit. I think I spent the whole time laughing while Mike was trying to show them the difference between rolling the ball and throwing the ball. Karina cried for a while after he left.

Sept-09

We celebrated Karina's 5th Birthday. Where is the time going? Jason had a couple of various work and pleasure trips to Vegas and Germany. We just kinda chugged along during September otherwise. Cooper is still insisting on wearing his Oregon Duck shirt (we had to buy a new version) and threw a fit when Karina came down on game day with her Alabama cheer outfit-ROLL TIDE!!!

Oct-09

The kids loved helping decorate the house for Halloween. It seem like this was the first year that they really understood about costumes and Halloween. They seemed to have something new everyday that they had decided they were going to be for Halloween. Grandma and Pops came to visit. We decided to Go to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins this year. Pops had the pleasure of carving the pumpkins with the kids. Jason had to travel to Germany during part of their visit. Halloween night we decided to have a party at our house as "base" for the adults. It was such a fun night especially for the kids who were on a big sugar high!

Nov-09

We took the kids to Disney on Ice. Karina was mesmerized by all the glitter costumes and Cooper was mesmerized by the popcorn and sprite! Jason planned a surprise getaway weekend for me with my good friend Christine. He continues to be the love of my life and is always doing thoughtful things.....including leaving a surprise envelope with $$$ for our trip and a few special bottle of wine. We flew up to Washington DC for Xavier's Baptism. It was so nice to get to spend time with Cristy and Xavier. The kids really enjoyed the Smithsonian museum and DC zoo as well. We got to spend the day with Pappa and nanna at the Baptism too! Thanksgiving was at Uncle Mike's this year with Pappa and Nanna joining us. The Perkins family came up and spent a day with us.

December-09

What a fun month! We kicked it off celebrating Jasons Birthday, then we had snow (second one of 2009-RARE) The kids kicked off Christmas with their Christmas program at Pre-School. Rocky kicked off Christmas by going up to the "Christmas closet" and stealing all of our dog/cat Christmas presents and bringing them down to open (see picture) Then we waited patiently for all our various company to arrive. We were lucky and to have Uncle Mike, Grandma, Pops, Uncle Den, Uncle Stan, Cristy and Xavier all come spend Christmas with us. We hosted our annual Christmas Eve dinner for all our family and extended family (Polinksys and Hobbs) We were sad at the loss of Diane Abernathy (Cindy's Sister) this year on Christmas Eve. We were both very proud of how patient and well behaved both Karina and Cooper were during this time while we spent much of the Christmas days in Tuscaloosa with Cindy and her family.